Fate Alternate
by aquahaloninja
Summary: Xavier Harrow is a magus, but he's not a "proper" one. He used to be a normal kid living in rural New York state, but when he discovers a family friend using magic, he demands to be taught. Years later, his teacher gets caught up in some sort of "Holy Grail War" and is in danger, so Xavier takes it upon himself to go to Fuyuki, Japan and make sure his teacher makes it out alive.
1. The Beginning of the End

**Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End**

I walked down the familiar street on my usual route home, observing the changing colors of the trees. Most people don't think of trees when they think of New York. They think of the bustling city, the millions of people, Manhattan Island. No one really bother to think about the rural towns in this area. Hell, some people probably think Manhattan **is** New York, or that all of it is like that. It's not. Most people also think that most rural communities are exclusively home to rednecks and farmers. They'd be wrong, too. Because while I am a farmer, for now, I'm also something else. Some call us wizards, some call us witches, but I prefer the term Magus.

I'm what the "proper" magus in the Clocktower of would call a first generation magus. Whatever I am, what I do know is that I am not a typical practitioner of magic. I learned my knowledge of magic from a family friend who I discovered using some sort of spell, and was immediately sworn to secrecy, but in one condition. He had to teach me to be a magus. After much arguing, magical threats, and pleading, he finally agreed to teach me. Although if I couldn't keep up, he'd quit teaching me. He later told me he thought i'd quit in a month or two. 12 months later, 12 year old Xavier still hadn't quit, and my teacher seemed to have stopped wanting me too. He always got me new books to study while he was on his "business trips" to England. I learned when he was here and practiced when he was gone. I also had to do all this while working on the farm and going to school. It was rough, but I was not going to give up on magic, no matter how difficult it was. I wanted to shoot fire out of me hands, fight great battles, be a hero. I was petty naive then. I didn't understand, I knew, but I didn't truly understand what came with being a magus, with fighting as one. I got what I wanted I guess. I asked for a battle. I got a war.

00000000

I approached my house, finally home from the last day of school for the rest of my life. My eighteenth birthday is in four days, and with the money I saved from work over the years, I'm going to move to England to "go to college." It's sort of the truth. I'm going to London to learn, to finally join the Clocktower as my teacher's official apprentice.

"Honey, is that you Xavier?" Called my mother from inside.

"Yeah, mom, I'm home!" I say as I walk inside. "I'm done with school, FOREVER!" I yell, jumping in the air, fist raised high.

"You mean until college, right" She asks, sounding slightly worried.

"Yes mom, I've already applied to college in London, and I I'm leaving with Jonathan when he heads back on business." I drawl.

"Good, good, just making sure you hadn't changed your mind. We don't want this life for you, you know. You need to go to college in this day and age, no matter what your father says." She says

"I know, I know, call me for dinner, I'll be in the barn, bye!" I say as I speed my way to the door and outside.

Moonlight shines in through the barn window as I aim my hand, palm forward, towards a target I set up. Surrounding the scorched target are a dozen buckets of water. The area in front of my palm begins to get hot and generate heat as I say " _Pyraht_!" When the word leaves my lips, a small but intense ball of fire forms in front of my hand. Then, it launches toward its target at a blinding speed. It collides with the metal target with a burst of flames. The target, being in the middle of the barn, was away from anything flammable. Of course, that's what I thought. The explosion was bigger than I anticipated, and the flames started to ignite the right side of the barn. "Damn it." I say as I extend my other arm toward the fire, palm facing down, and say " _Caquol_!" Jets of water shoot from the buckets toward the fire, twisting in the air so the streams all impact the burning wall at the same time. As they hit, the fire goes out immediately, and water splashes everywhere, and drenches me. "Great." I mutter under my breath. As I grab a towel, that I apparently wisely brought, and begin drying off, my phone begins to buzz. I grab it with a now only slightly damp hand and answer with an unenthusiastic "Hello?"

"Hey kid, how's the training going?" He says with an audible smirk.

"Jon, what's up! How's the Clocktower?" I ask.

"Aww, straight to work, and after I been gone for so long?" He whines.

"Hey, I said 'what's up' first! Plus, you know I always want to know more about the Clocktower, and when-"

"-you'll get to go there and learn to be a better magus, I know, I know. You know, I could take offense to that."

"You're a bad teacher and we both know it. A good magus, but a bad teacher."

"Yeah...I know, I know, you tell me all the time! By the way, stop saying it so much! He yells. So, uh, there's something I need to, um, tell you."

"What is it?" I ask skeptically.

"I won't be coming home for awhile. There's some things I need to do, and I won't be home for a month or so. So that means we're gonna have to postpone the move to the Clocktower just a bit." He says sheepishly.

"So, only by a month or so, right?" I ask tentatively.

"Yes! It's not long, and then we'll head to the Clocktower. It'll be you and me buddy, and it'll be great. Trust me. Just wait for me to get back, practice, and then we'll go. Okay?"

"Yeah, I can wait a bit longer." I say after a minute. "What I want to know is what's so important that you have to do for a month."

"Oh, that? It's nothing, just magus stuff, a contract, short, simple, I'll be careful. Look, I gotta, client waiting. I'll call you when I'm finished, okay? Oh, and one more thing. If anything ever, you know, happens to me..."

"Don't say that, you said it was a simple contract! You'll be fine. It is simple, right?"

"Yes, of course!" He stammers. "I just mean in general. If I ever die before you, you need to know where my will is. It's in the chest in my garage, in the binder.

You'll know what to do next after reading it." He says, suddenly serious.

"Wait, why are you telling me this now? What are you about to do? Really." I demand.

"It's nothing." In the following silence he can feel my glare. "Okay, it's a bit serious, but you can't come and you can't ask what it is, because I won't tell you. Just, if I don't come back, read the will. It'll have everything you need to know in it. If I survive, I'll come and tell you myself, so you get to know either way. Win win, right?" He says cheerfully. I wasn't feeling the cheer. "Oh, don't try and open it before you're supposed to, you can't, it'll only open after my death! I know you were already thinking about breaking into my house, you cheater. Well, sorry, but I gotta go, i'm being called for. Bye!" He hung up before I could say anything in response. I put away my phone, the buckets, and hid my target in its usual place. As I headed back to the house, mom started calling me for dinner. Sitting down for dinner, I only had one thought on my mind. When am I breaking into that bastards garage.


	2. Breaking and Entering

**Chapter 2: Breaking and Entering**

I land outside my room and close my window behind me. Turning towards Jon's house, I start jogging. "Uhgg, this'll take too long." I mutter, and begin reinforcing my legs, willing myself to go faster. I sprint at unnatural speeds, at least for me, into Jon's yard after a few minuets of running. Luckily, he lives alone, so breaking in wont be a problem at all. "Sorry, but you shouldn't have lied to me and left, soooooo..." I trail off as I raise my right hand. " _Pyraht_." I mutter quietly, and a small ball of flame forms and launches at the doorknob. It blasts through the door, melting the knob and setting the door on fire. "Damn, to bad there's no water around. Guess i'll have to make my own." I raise my left arm, aim at the door, and say " _Walhr Altu Caquol_!" Water generates around my arm, then shoots out at the door, putting out the fire in a few seconds. "Nice. Its good I have an affinity for water too, or i'd have been screwed by now." I mutter to no one. I open the door, flinching when my hand connects with the still hot section of it, and enter the house.

I move through the familiar house, in, albeit, not so familiar circumstances. I navigate myself through the house to the garage. Once i'm inside, I scan the room for the chest. "There." I say, as I spot it in the far right corner. I examine it as I walk up to it. "It looks pretty normal, but that's never the case with Jon." Fire might be a bit much for inside the house. I don't want to burn the WHOLE place down. At least not at the moment. I begin to pump Od into the circuits in my right arm, reinforcing it to inhuman levels, lines of green appearing on it as I do so. After I deemed the reinforcement successful, I swing my arm downward with all the force I can muster. It bounced off. "What the hell?" I say, slightly shocked. I mean, he said it was impossible for me to open, but, damn, that's tough. Hmmmm, well drastic times and all that. " _Pyraht._ " I say, and a fireball hits the chest, explodes, and...nothing. "Damn it!" I yell, getting aggravated. "Okay, you want to see something better, huh? Okay then, chest, I'll show you something better." I raise both my hands, palms facing the chest, and say " _Fyal Ignilez Pyraz_!" Heat starts generating as it always does, but hotter than my normal fireball spell. Then, bam. A stream of fire shoots out of my hands and impacts with the front of the wooden chest. Of course it does nothing. "C'mon, focus, damn it." I chide myself, focus more mana into my arms, imagining the stream becoming more focused itself. It worked. The fire has changed from a spread to more of a white hot beam of heat. Nothing changes. Nothing, nothing, nothing, damn it! How did he make the chest this strong? Wait, are those...cracks? The invisible shield around the chest starts to show hairline cracks. Then they double in size. Then the entire thing explodes. I'm thrown back by the force of the blast, hitting the wall of the garage. "Owwww, whats the point of having reinforcement if I can't activate it time to protect myself from stuff like this...I need to focus more..." I continue to mumble to myself as I re-approach the undamaged chest. "Guess it protected it till the end. Nice job, Jon." I compliment him as I begin to pilfer through his belongings.

"Lets see what we got here." I open the chest, and see...a leather binder and a staff. "Huh. I don't what else I was expecting. For such a big chest, you only put a staff and a binder in it?" I grab the binder and open it. There's a bunch of notes on spells and runes and summoning and, there! The note! "Lets find out whats so important you have to lie to me and risk your life for."

 _Dear Xavier_

 _If you're reading this, then i'm dead. If i'm not dead and you're reading this, i'll kill you. Anyway, i'm dead. Probably. You probably want to know why. The Holy Grail War. That's your answer. A war where seven magus summon heroes from the past to fight for them, kill each other, and the surviving pair gets access to the grail. The grail then grants any wish. This is why I left, and it apparently killed me in the process. That sucks, because I had a pretty good wish. I just wanted there to be peace and equality between the magus. I guess I didn't get my wish. I hope no asshole got his hands on it. That would suck. Well, I left you all my notes, and I mystic code I made. Use it to protect yourself, you never know when you might need it. I've made a few enemies in my time, maybe right before I died, and they might come after you. Use all I taught you, my notes, and that weapon, and you should be fine. Go to the Clocktower. Become a greater magus. Live a good life. Just know you were like the little brother or nephew I never had. Take care, kiddo._

 _-Jonathan_

"Well, damn."


	3. Fuyuki

**Chapter 3: Fuyuki**

"Japan? I thought you were going to England?" My mother asks.

"Yeah, but there's some, uh, extra credit stuff that I can research in Fuyuki if I go there. I'll be ahead of the game when school starts if I do." I lie. Good thing I even know to go to Fuyuki. If he didn't leave his search history on his computer intact, I wouldn't have been able to find out he ordered a plane ticket to there. Good thing I thoroughly searched his house before I left.

"Well, if its for school, than I guess its okay. Your going to miss your birthday though! You study all the time, you could make an exception this one time. Its important!" My mom pleads.

Yeah, not studying what you think, mom. "I can't mom. Plus, i'm not gonna miss my birthday. It'll happen wherever I am."

"Well, then you'll be making us miss it!" She pouted, glaring at me in a not at all intimidating way.

"I have to go mom, this is important. Jon, um, recommended it. He said I should do it." I lied again.

"He did? Well maybe I should call him." She said, reaching for the phone as my eyes widened.

"Um, no, you, uh, shouldn't. He said he was very busy right now in England. He might not even pick up if you called!" I said, trying to keep the falsehood together.

"Really? Well, I don't know. Are you sure?" She asked, her eyes seemingly pleading me to say that I wasn't.

"I am." I answered, completely sure of myself, one of my few truths today.

"Well, if you're sure. I'll support you. Emotionally, of course. You're paying for it."

"Heh heh, great..." I said as I grimaced.

0000000000000

I looked around the outside of the airport for five seconds and realized one thing. I have no idea what i'm doing. How am I going to find Jon? How do I convert dollars to yen? How do I talk to people when I know zero Japanese? "I am so screwed. At least I know I wont be mugged. At least not successfully." I said with a chuckle.

"Two hours of walking and i'm still as lost as I was before." I say to myself. "No one has tried to mug me, either, so I can't even distract myself with a fight." I sigh. Well, time to get something to eat, I guess. Oh, wait. No money. "DAMN IT!" I yell, attracting the attention of many bystanders. I stare at nothing for a minute until someone comes and grabs my arm. I instinctively begin to reinforce my arms and begin to swing my free arm at the attacker. That is, until I see its a little girl. I freeze, than put down my arms and stop the reinforcement. "Hi, little girl, what do you, uh, need?" I ask, not sure what to say.

"Tasuke ga hitsuyōdesu ka?" She asks. Huh. Well, what to do. What do I say? She wont understand anything!

"Ummmm, Kon'nichiwa, little girl, ummmm, that's the only Japanese word I know. That's all I got." I say, resigned to the fact that I will be getting nowhere with this conversation.

"Nihongo wa hanasemasen ka? Watashi to kite." She says, dragging me by my arm to who knows where. I got nowhere else to go, and this situation can't possibly get worse, so I let her drag me wherever she wants to take me. Turns out, "wherever," is a house, hers I assume, that we walk towards the entrance.

"Mama, kono gaikoku hito wa nihongo o hanasezu, tasuke ga hitsuyōdesu." The little girl says. The mom, I assume, looks at me from their garden, and her eyes widen, then narrow, then go back to their friendly looking, original look. Oh great, i'm some weird guy walking with her daughter. Great first impression on these people. Wait a minute shes-"You're not Japanese!" I shout with a smile. Now her face shifts to something different. Complete shock and confusion.

"Yes." She says slowly. "I'm originally from America. Who are you? Why are you with my daughter? She says you need help?" She says, with the threat of pain if I say the wrong thing in her eyes.

"Yeah, uh, i'm looking for my friend, he's here, in Japan right now, and I came here to meet with him. I was, um, going to surprise him, but I don't know where he is, how to convert my money, where anything is, or how to read or speak the language here. So, yeah, I might need a little help."

She just stares at me blankly, then bursts out into laughter. "Man, you really have gotten yourself into something, haven't you?"

"Yeah, well, can help me? Please?" I beg.

"Sure, kid, come one inside. You can stay for dinner, we'll help you get set up here in Fuyuki, and maybe we can help you find your friend."

"Really? Thank you. By the way, we didn't exchange names. I'm Xavier Harrow." I say, while giving a little bow.

"No need for that, X, we're both Americans here. A handshake will do if you insist on doing this introduction formally." She says as she holds out here hand. "I'm Cass Kanada." I grab her hand, and we shake. I look at her hand as we shake. Huh, that's a weird tattoo, I think.


	4. Cassandra Kanada

**Chapter 4: Cassandra Kanada**

"So, you're from New York? I'm from Cali, practically lived on the beach." She states, proudly.

"Really? Cool. I've only been to the beach a few times. To live there all the time must have been interesting. Didn't you always get hot?" I asked.

"Hot? When you live there, the heat is just normal, you don't even think about it unless its unusually hot."

"Huh, interesting." I say, only half interested in the polite conversation. Then I notice her tattoo again. "Hey, I've been wondering, what's that tattoo mean? Does it mean anything, or is it just a cool symbol?" After I ask, her eyes instantly lose the joy the held not a second before. She looks right at me, like shes looking into my soul.

"I don't know, why don't you tell me." She says flatly, without emotion.

"Um, what do you mean? Should I recognize it?" I ask, completely confused. Apparently it showed, because she looked at me for a few more seconds, and then went back to exactly how she was before.

"Oh, never mind, its nothing!" She says cheerfully. Its fake joy, I can tell. I guess there must be some bad memories associated with that tattoo or something. "My husband should be swinging by to pick up Yoko and leave for their vacation soon, so I need to get her ready." She says, getting up.

"Their vacation? What about you? Aren't you going with them?" I ask, confused.

"No, I have too much work, and convinced them to go without me." She says happily, like it was a good thing they were going without her.

"Oh, okay then. I guess i'll wait here? Unless you need help?"

"Well," she says with a dangerous glint in her eye, "if you insist." She says with a smile I don't think I like.

"I'm going to regret this..." I mumble under my breath.

0000000000

After what felt like hours of packing, and cleaning, which I don't remember agreeing to help with, I met her husband. He was nice, decent, nothing out of the ordinary. After we ate, they got their things and left. "And then there were two." I say, not able to think of anything else. Then, i'm suddenly on the floor, pinned down, with Cass' face right in front of mine. "Whoa, what the hell?" I say confused and angry.

"Make any sudden moves and you die." Cass says, deadly serious. Literally.

"What?! What did I do?! I say, completely shocked and confused.

"You came into a magus' house during the Holy Grail War, that's what, you dumbass, that's what. Now I don't know what game you're playing at, but you better start explaining it to me real fast before you find you can't breath anymore." She says without emotion.

"What? What do you me-" My face contorts through confusion, surprise, utter and complete shock, and finally understanding of my situation. "Shit." I say.

"Yeah, shit is right! What the hell are you doing. Tell me, right now!" She demands.

"I don't know! That's why i'm here, i'm looking for-" Wait a minute. Holy Grail War. Jon's part of it. She might be, too. If she knows about him, she'll try to kill him. There can only be one winner. So that means...one of them has to die. "Are you part of the grail war?" I ask.

"What? You have to ask? You don't know? You saw my hand, right?" She asked, clearly confused.

"Yeah, so what?" I respond, not seeing what the big deal with her tattoo was. Unless... "It has something to do with the war." I state, more like a fact than a question.

"Yes, it does. The real question here, is do you?"

"No! Well, yes. Sort of. By proxy, I guess?"

"By proxy." She repeats, with an eyebrow raised.

"Yes?" I say, somewhat confident in my answer.

"Are you a master or not?" She demands, raising one hand as if preparing to strike.

"No! Please, I don't want to fight!" I plead, not wanting to kill her. That is, if I even could. She stares at me for a few moments, the sighs, and gets off of me and helps me up.

"So," I say, trying to ignore the awkwardness in the room, "you're a master?"

"Yes." She responds.

"And that tattoo shows that you're a master?"

"More or less."

"And we don't have to fight since I'm not a master?"

"Now that's the part we still need to figure out." She says, her eyes narrowed. "Is your friend that you're looking for a master?" Ah, there it is. The question that could end me.

"No, but he's a magus in danger." I state clearly and evenly, as if it was the truth. It was at least partially true. It's just half a lie. She stares at me a for a minute in contemplation, probably deciding whether to kill me or not. She can try, but I won't go down without a fight.

"Okay, fine, I'll help you." She says with a sigh, clearly not actually wanting to help, but feeling obligated to. "What's his name?"

"Jonathan Waller. Do you know him?" I hope not. Maybe if she doesn't she'll tell me she can't help and let me be on my way. Her eyes widen in shock.

"Jon? What's he gotten himself into this time? He's in Fuyuki? He should know the wars going on now. What's he doing here..." She trails off.

"Wait, you know him? How?" I asked, shocked she actually knows him.

"We studied at the Clocktower together. How do you know him?" She says, back into suspicious mode.

"He was my mentor, taught me everything about magic I know, except the stuff that I taught myself when he was away." I tell her.

"Really? Jon, a teacher? Why didn't you just go to the Clocktower, or have your parents teach you?" Shit. Regular magus aren't too fond of first generation magus like me. Plus, he revealed magic to me, albeit on accident, and didn't kill me. Even worse, he taught me.

"My parents didn't have time to teach me," I lie, sounding surprisingly convincing, at least to myself, "and I didn't want to leave home just yet. Jon offered to teach me when he had time, so I took the solution that solved all my problems."

"Hmmm, wish he'd have told me he took on a student. Maybe I could've helped him teach you. Still could, if your still willing to learn, but that's a conversation for once you find Jon. Do you have any idea why he might be here, or where he is?" She asks.

"If I did, I wouldn't be here." I respond.

"Hmmm, well, I wish I could help, kid. I've got a lot of prep I have to do for the war. If you find any leads, then I'll help you look, but until then, I have stuff I need to do. I can't just go all over Fuyuki aimlessly looking for one man." She tells me, with regret visible on here face.

"It's okay. I'll let you know if I find anything, I guess." Don't expect to hear anything, Cassie. "I guess I should go look for him. See you around?"

"Sure, kid" She says, with a smirk that seems like it has a tinge of sadness to it. I grab my bag and move toward the door. Then I stop, realizing something.

"Oh, and one more thing before I go." I add.

"What is it?" She asks.

"Can you please teach me how to survive here, like you were going to before the whole pouncing on me incident?" I plead. Her face breaks into a smile.

"Sure, X, sure thing."


	5. The Mark of a Master

**Chapter 5: The Mark of a Master**

After learning how to function properly in Japan, I finally left Cassie and headed out on my own. "Now if I were a dumbass magus fighting in a war over a mystic artifact, where would I be?" I say to myself and sigh. "Well, I can't keep looking through the night. I need to find a hotel." I look around for about 10 minuets till I find something, then spend the next 10 attempting to rent a hotel room using broken Japanese and hand movements. Finally, I make my way into my room and collapse on the bed, passing out soon after.

0000000000

I wake up feeling groggy and push myself into a sitting position. "Uhhhhggg, why am I still tired, I sleep like," I look at the clock, "five hours. Huh, well that explains that." I get up and go into the bathroom and begin brushing my teeth. As I do so in front of the mirror, I see red. On my hand. I drop my toothbrush. I hold up my hand to the mirror, and there it is. Exactly what it looked like. A tattoo. On my hand. I'm a master. "Fuck! I'm supposed to save him, not join the fight! Does this mean I have to fight? Will people come to kill me now? How do I get a servant? If I don't get one, do I have to fight? Shit. Where do I find this stuff out?" I say, exasperated. Wait a minute. I know where I can get the info I need. "Shit."

0000000000

I take a deep breath. She's Jon's friend. Jon's practically family. That makes her practically extended family. She wont kill me. Probably. I run my hand through my dark brown hair. "Here goes nothing..." I mutter. I knock on the door. I wait a for about a minuet. Then it opens. There she is. Go time.

"Hey Cassie! How's it going!" I say with fake cheer and a wave of my now gloved hand.

"Fine? You seem awfully cheery. Did you find Jon?" She asks with an eager smile.

"Ummm, no." Her smile drops. "I did have some questions though."

"Oh yeah? What else do you need to know?"

Here it goes. "Oh, nothing much, just, are you going to kill the other masters?" I say, getting quieter with each word.

"The other masters? That's none of your business. Why would you ask-wait, are you worried about their lives? Look, kid, most people in the grail war aren't great people-"

"Jon's a master!" I yell, interrupting her. I rip off the leather glove on my right hand. "And so am I!" Silence. Absolute silence.

"What." she says, dumbfounded.

"We're both masters. I knew he was one, but this thing," I say as I gesture to my tattoo, "appeared on my hand this morning, and I don't know what to do. Please don't kill me." I beg. She looks at me with a shocked expression on her face for a few minuets, before grabbing me and dragging me inside.

"What the hell, X? You told me your 'friend', aka Jon, wasn't a master! And that you weren't, either!" She shouts in my face

"I'm sorry! I though you might kill him! But then you turned out to be his friend, then I go this tattoo," I once again gesture to the tattoo, "and I was confused and worried someone would kill me and thought you might be cool with me and Jon being masters since he's your friend, so I came to tell you. Plus, its the only idea I could come up with. Also, I didn't lie about not being a master. Like I said, woke up just this morning with this and no idea how it go there." I finish, taking a deep breath to recover from all the talking. She stands there, absorbing the information. Then, she puts her hand on my shoulder, and says, "Well, I guess i'm gonna have to help you. Damn you Jon. Okay, you're going to do everything I say, okay? We're gonna find Jon, win the war, and all get out alive."

"Really? Great, than-wait, WIN the war? We're going to fight the other masters and servants?" I ask, incredulous.

"Yes, I...Jon means too much to me to let this come between us. Even if 'this' is a wish granting cup holding omniscient power." She states.

"Wow. I was actually worried you were gonna try and kill me, and then Jon, even if you were friends." I say with a sigh of relief.

"I seriously considered it." She says, with a dead serious and chilling look in her eyes. "But, even my wish isn't worth killing my best friend and his student."

"Best friend? I say, slightly shocked, not having ever know anyone who was 'best friend' close to Jon besides maybe myself. "How close were you two?"

"As close as two people can be, I guess. We were inseparable. That's in the past now, though. We need to look forward, not back." She says, having turned away from me, now facing the wall.

"Okay?" I respond, confused, but wanting to move on to more relevant matters. Looking forward and not back, right? "So, what's the plan?" I ask her.

"The plan? Kick ass."


	6. Teamups and Meetups

**Chapter 6: Teamups and Meetups**

"Okay, so let me see if I got this straight. You help me summon a servant, we find Jon, team up with him, take out the other masters and servants, then once its only us three, we duke it out in a three way battle of only servants where we don't try to kill each other. Then the winner of that gets the grail?" I summarize.

"Yep, that pretty much covers it." Cassie affirms.

"So your plan is to turn the murderous Holy Grail War into a friendly competition for omniscient power by its end?" I restate, incredulous.

"That's pretty much the plan." she says, with a normal smile that suggests she was stating anything but the insanity that just came out of her mouth.

"You're insane." I state blankly.

"Yep. You in?" She asks. I look up at her from the point i'd been staring at on the ground. She looks calm. Confidant. She knows this whole situation, the war, the team up, the back and forth between friendship and murder, all of this is insane. She knows this, but she's confidant anyway. She truly believes everything will be alright.

"Okay, yeah, i'm in. Sounds like the plan least likely for me to die by going along with, so why not? Aren't there rules against this sort of thing, though?" I ask.

"Nope, they just believe that our selfish desires are enough to thwart any long term team up or 'fair combat.' So as long as you don't anything stupid, like try to kill me or my servant, then we'll be good. Okay?" She asks with death in her eyes.

"Yep, yes, loud and clear ma'am!" I say nervously.

"Good. Now, we have to summon your servant. Of course by 'we', I mean you."

"What?!" I exclaim. "I have no idea what i'm doing! How am I supposed to do it alone?!"

"Calm down! I'll teach you how! I just meant the actual summoning will have to be done by you, and i'm not gonna hold your hand while you do it."

"Oh, that's a relief." I sigh. Then I realize something. "Wait a minute, do you already have a servant, or are you about to summon yours too?" I ask.

"Yep, I already got mine." Cassie says with a smirk that practically said, 'Ha, i'm superior.' "He's out right now, though. Scouting the area and all. Said he wanted to make sure there were no enemies close by, and that he would destroy those who he found." She shrugs with a small smile on her face. "That's Berserker for you, I guess."

I give her a questioning look with one eyebrow raised. "Your servant's name is 'Berserker?'" I ask, confused by the names oddness.

"Yeah? Whats so weird about that?" She asks, seemingly just as confused by me. Then a her face contorts into one of realization. "Ahhhhhh, he didn't tell you about the classes, did he?"

"What classes?" I ask her.

"Well, each servant has a class it belongs to, one of the seven. They are Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, and-"

"Berserker." A new voice finished her sentence from somewhere behind me.

"I'm assuming _that_ would be your servant..." I say, slowly turning around. Before I even see him, I can feel the power radiating off of him.

"Yes, yes it would." She says, smirking at me once again. I finish turning around and take in the sight in front of me. He's definitely big. His armor is brown with red horizontal stripes going across it. He's wearing a steel helmet with chainmail coming out of the sides and a stream of red plume coming out of the top. He has a big beard, but it only surrounds his mouth, and hard eyes. At his side was a big sword. Not huge, but big. He's definitely powerful, and he's staring me down.

"Why is he looking at me like that?" I ask, trying not to show any fear. Trying and failing.

"Maybe you should ask him yourself, child." The servant said, his voice low and intimidating.

"Chill, Berserker, the kid's with me. We're allies now. Treat him with the same respect you treat me with, unless he does something stupid. Then hit him, but not too hard." She says to, apparently Berserker, with a smile.

"Are you sure, master? He is but a child, not a warrior like you or me." He responded.

"Yes, i'm sure, Berserker. He may not be a warrior yet, but i'll help get him there." Cassie answers.

"But master, training a future enemy? Is that wise? We would be bett-"

"Yes, Berserker, i'm sure. My word is final. Now, would you please leave us and go guard the premises?

"Yes, master." Berserker says with a sigh. Then he disintegrated.

"What the hell!? What did he just do!?" I exclaim, shocked. Cassie just sighs, grabbing her forehead.

"You have a lot to learn, kid. Come on, lets get to it. Time to educate you."

 **Authors Notes**

 **Hey guys, thanks for reading! Hope you like it so far. If you have any questions about the story feel free to pm me. And because I think someone might ask, and i'm not 100% sure how it is in canon since we haven't seen a lot of back and forth, but i'm going with Mad Enchantment can be turned on and off for Berserker. Also, I don't want to annoy you guys, but please review. Tell me what i'm doing right, tell me what i'm doing wrong. Nicely though, please. Anything helps.**

 **-Aqua**


	7. Preparation

**Chapter 7: Preparation**

"So, the Saber, Lancer and Archer classes are the three knight classes, and have a resistance to magic?" I ask.

"Yes, that's correct and-"

"Master," Berserker appears and says out of nowhere.

"What th-Berserker! Jeez, announce yourself first!" Cassie yelled in the servant's face. Isn't antagonizing a heroic spirit bad for your health, though? Well, if it is, Berserker didn't seem to get the memo. All he did is narrow his eyes slightly at his master before responding.

"My apologies, master." The words seemed like they were hard for him to get out. This is the third time he's appeared to check on us in the past two hours. What has he got to say this time? "I would like to know how your teaching of the child is going. Is he less of an imbecile?" That's what he has to say. Okay, that's it. Call me child all you want, but i'm drawing the line at imbecile.

"Hey, listen here, Casper the barbarian-"

"Okay then!" Cassie yelled, cutting me off. "How about we all chill out. Berserker, X?" She looked at us, awaiting an answer.

"Very well, master."

"Yeah, yeah, sure." I grumbled. "Well, he actually does have a point," I say, realizing something. "I think, at least. Him bugging us all the time, he's bored and annoyed. You're thinking, 'when are we gonna get out there,' right?" I ask the barbarian.

"Hmmm, he has a brain after all." Berserker muses. "Seems he is good for something." He turns toward Cassie. "Your protege is right. When are we going to go on the offensive?"

"When we're ready!" She responds. "X still hasn't summoned his servant yet. Once we do that, then we'll go looking for our final ally. We'll get him, and then work out a proper offensive strategy. Okay?" She looks hard at her servant.

"Very well, master. I know you wont change your mind. But know this, gaining too many allies can only mean an early end for you. And by extension, me." After the last word left his lips, he dematerialized. Too many allies? Doesn't he know...wait a minute.

"You didn't tell him about our plan, did you?" I ask Cassie. She looks over at me with a 'duh' look on her face.

"Duh." She says to me. "Why would I? Our plan isn't in his favor. He might kill you." Now that's news to me.

"What!? Why would he kill me? I thought servants were here to, well, serve? Can they even disobey?" I ask, thoroughly confused.

"Kid, servants are people. Dead people, sure, but people all the same. He wants the Grail as much as me. If he hears our plan, which makes it more likely he'll die just so our team will survive, he might kill you to get you out of the way."

"Wait, servants get a wish too?"

"Yep, if they're part of the winning team, they get the grail too. So that means you don't tell Berserker any of this if you value your life, okay?"

"Yeah, you got it. This life is kinda the most valuable thing I got," I quip.

"Ha ha," She fake laughs, "don't be a smartass, X. So, you ready?"

"Ready for what?" I ask.

"To summon your servant," She says casually. "I've got everything set up in the attic."

"Really? We're doing it now?" I say, confused by the change in plans.

"I was going to wait, but maybe you and Berserker are right. Time to get this over with. You're ready. Just read the incantation and flood the circle with your prana. Pour all of your feeling into it, and you'll do fine." I think about this for a moment. I did want to get this done already. The sooner we get my servant, the sooner we find Jon. Plus, she says i'm ready.

"Okay, lets do this," I say as I take a deep breath. "Lets do this."

We walk towards the stairs, and go up until we reach a hatch. Cassie pulls it down, and a ladder falls down, the bottom hitting the floor. As we begin to climb up it, something occurs to me. "Hey, Cassie?" I say.

"Yeah, X?" She responds.

"Aren't we going to be essentially tricking our servants, legendary heroes, out of a fair chance to get ultimate power? I mean, if anyone deserves it, it's probably the heroes. Not us." I say, struggling with the thought of going on with this underhanded plan.

"Look, kid," Cassie says, reaching out her hand, meeting mine, and helping me into the attic. "There's no 'fair' in the Holy Grail War. You win, or you lose. It doesn't matter what you do between point A and B."

"Nothing matters?" I ask. "If that was true, you probably would've killed me already."

"Probably?" She repeats, while moving some boxes around.

"Hey, I have a few tricks up my sleeve. You haven't even seen me fight yet. Don't underestimate me," I say with a with a smirk.

"Okay, fine, kid. _Most_ things don't matter except for the grail. Jon's just part of the one percent that does," She states. A slightly awkward silence followed. I just kind of looked around for the next few minutes, while Cassie kept looking for something. After a few more minutes passed, I finally decided to say something. Something that had been on my mind for a while.

"So tell me, because I've been wondering..." I trail off.

"Yeah, what is it?" She asks from under a table, staring at the ground for some reason.

"Were you and Jon, like, a thing?" I ask. Right after I said it, her head bolted upwards in shock. She rammed against the bottom of the table.

"Now, where, where the, where the hell would you get that kinda idea from?" She stammers nervously.

"Wow. That was shockingly easy. So, you were a thing. How long?" I ask, curious about my teachers former partner.

"Now, that's none, none of your damn business, kid!" Cassie, now out from under the table, yells in my face.

"Jeez, no need to yell," I say back. "I guess it was kinda rude to pry. Sorry."

"Well, that's good. Good to hear. Now, lets get back to finding the circle, and by 'lets' I mean 'JUST ME, BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT DOING ANYTHING!'"

"Well, you never told me to do anything!"

"Yeah well, you could've asked to help!"

"I didn't know if I would be interrupting whatever you were doing or not!"

"Just get over her and HELP ME, DAMN IT!"


	8. Summoning

**Chapter 8: Summoning**

We moved some boxes and that table off to the side, revealing a magic circle, which I assumed is a summoning circle. "Okay, here's the deal. You're going to stand in front of the circle, and hold out your hand like this," She said, while thrusting her arm out towards the circle, palm facing outward. "Then you'll preform the Aria. Here, I wrote it down for you. Go over it a few times. Memorize it. Then chant it, arm outstretched, pour as much prana as you can into the circle, and hope for the best. Like I said, put all yourself into it, and you'll do fine." I reached out and grabbed the parchment from her, and read over the aria a few times. I handed it back to her.

"Let's do this."

* * *

I stood before the circle, are outstretched, palm facing forward. I took a deep breath, and begun to generate prana and direct it towards the circle. Then I spoke. "Fill, fill, fill, fill, fill. Repeat five times, and each time it is filled, destroy it." I feel the prana leaving me and filling up the circle, and then it begins to glow. "For the elements silver and iron. The foundation stone and the Archduke of Pacts, and for my great master, Schweinorg. Raise a wall against the wind, and close the gate of four directions. Come forth from the crown, and follow the forked road leading to the kingdom." The glow of the circle becomes brighter, and I start to squint. "Heed my words. My will creates your body, and your sword creates my destiny. If you heed the Grail's call and obey my will and reason, then answer my summoning." Wind starts to pick up, coming from the circle. "I hereby swear that I shall be all the good in the world, that I shall defeat all evil in the world." I start to raise my voice, yelling over the wind. "Seventh-heaven clad and the great words of power, come forth from the circle of binding, Guardian of the Scales!"

Light exploded from the circle, filling up the attic. The building likely looked like a short lighthouse from the outside. Then, the light was gone, and only a figure remained. It was tall, and of an average build. Wait, no, that's just his robe concealing his true build. Him. Yes, definitely a 'him.' His hair, put back in a ponytail of sorts that went straight back instead of downwards, was black wild, and his eyes piercing. His robe darkish teal color, and fastened at his hip were two swords. Strangely, one seemed shorter than the other, though that could just be because of the angle I was seeing them at. His feet were only sheltered by simple sandals. His piercing eyes swept over the room, than landed on me. Landed on me isn't quite the best description of what happened, actually. It was less, 'landed on me,' and more, 'cut through my entire being.' Then he spoke.

"You, young magus. Is it you, who is my Master?"

 **Author's Note**

 **Sorry for the short chapter, I just wanted to get something out there, and this seemed like a good spot (minus it's shortness) for the chapter to end. On a related note, sorry for the long wait in between chapters. I'm just a horrible person. Okay, no I'm not (at least I hope not), I just get bursts of inspiration. Sometimes I'm feeling it, and sometimes I'm not. Silly 'feelings' aside, I'll try to be faster in uploading in the future. I've also been spreading myself too thin. Counting this one, I have four stories I'm working on right now. FOUR. Maybe that's not a lot for more experienced writers, or maybe it is and my thoughts are completely rational, but I think that's probably too much. Alas, inspiration for multiple other stories struck, and I wanted to write them down. The other stories, if you were wondering, are another Fate story called _Fate Erratic,_ an Avatar/Korra sequel story called _Reign of the Avatar_ , and a completely original story, which is currently titled _The Modern Messiah_. Messiah will be located on my FictionPress (since it's not fan fiction) which is linked on my profile. If you have any questions about anything, whether it's about a current story or an 'in production' one, don't hesitate to PM me. I'll be happy to answer any questions. By the way, PLEASE REVIEW. As an author, I crave feedback. If you don't want to review, you can always PM with feedback too. I'd love to hear what you guys think, the good and the bad. Thanks for reading!**


End file.
